Duke University Student Wins Top Programmer Prize
By Ronald Roach
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.
Sun Microsystems Inc. and TopCoder Inc. named Duke University junior David Arthur, originally from Toronto, the winner of the 2003 Sun Microsystems and TopCoder Collegiate Challenge last month. At a competition in Cambridge, Mass., Arthur beat out 15 of the world’s best Java and C++ programmers for a $50,000 grand prize and the claim of the world’s best college programmer.
“What a great feeling this is to be able to compete against the best programmers in the world. I really didn’t think I had much of a chance against these other guys,” Arthur says. “I’m also really thankful to TopCoder, Sun and Nvidia for putting on such an exciting and professional event.”
Arthur is on a full academic scholarship at Duke University. Prior to the championship, Arthur had won total prize money from TopCoder amounting to more than $16,000. He won the majority of his TopCoder winnings last fall when he finished in third place in the 2002 TopCoder Invitational.
